Category Archives: magazine

Quick Review Of Black Panther Nos. 20-22: "World Tour," Parts II, III, and IV of IV

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WRITER: Reginald Hudlin

ARTIST:  Manuel Garcia

PLOT: King T’Challa and his new bride, Storm of the X-Men, begin a global diplomatic mission. They have to discover who their friends and enemies are, now that they are a power couple on Marvel’s world stage. So they visit the Inhumans on the Moon, Prince Namor The First of Atlantis, and Iron Man in Washington, D.C. as CIVIL WAR continues to rage throughout the Marvel Universe.

VERDICT: I’m still not feeling the characterization of any of these characters, but Hudlin’s writing is improving. The conflicts seem contrived for action’s sake, which, in comics terms, is so mid-1960s. 🙂 But Hudlin is trying to tell a story. The flashback sequence with The Invaders in 21 was well-handled. The confrontation with Shellhead would have been interesting if I hadn’t read the far superior Enemy of The State II a few years back.

Anyway, the stage is set for King T’Challa and Queen Ororo to become major players in CW. And I guess you’ve heard by now that the Royal Couple will soon join a certain well-known superhero team?

Black Panther 22

In Esquire, Shades Of Cosby

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Well, once again a discussion of a “deal” that half of us have supposedly reneged.

Once again, an “us” vs. “them” discussion in which both groups ARE THE SAME, coming from identically identifiable shacks in the Black historical backwoods. The ones that left the group—the “respectable” ones, the ones who were chosen or chose themselves—are “shocked! shocked!” to find that the ones they left don’t give a f*&k about the American history of any word. Or whether or not they “embarrass” the group that abandoned them.

So now I’m supposed to admire COLIN POWELL and CONDI, ignoring the prominent roles they’ve played for the past six years in maintaining white world supremacy, capitalism and—most relevant here—MILITARISM?

But, hey, it all makes good, provocative copy. I mean, how else are we going to get HBO comedy specials or articles about Black people in Esquire?  🙂

About Black Writers: Hurston/Wright Foundation Legacy Awards And Freedomways

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Went to the ceremony last Friday. Shook Morgan Freeman’s hand and told him that, to me, he’d always be Easy Reader  from “The Electric Company.”  🙂

So the Foundation (based in my adopted hometown of Hyattsville! Woo-woo!) gave out its Legacy Awards for Black literary excellence.

Emcee S. Epatha Merkerson (yep, the sister from NBC’s “Law And Order”) could not have been funnier. 

The physical award was especially cool—a beautiful statue of Djhuiti.  No joke, bay-bee!

Here’s the winners, most of whom were there to pick up their awards and speechify:

NONFICTION: John Hope Franklin (for “Mirror To America: The Autobiography of John Hope Franklin”)

First Finalist: Donald Bogle (for “Bright Boulevard, Bold Dreams”)

Second Finalist: Lisa Farrington (for “Creating Their Own Image: The History of African-American Women Artists”)

CONTEMPORARY FICTION: Clyde W. Ford (for “The Long Mile” )

DEBUT FICTION: Denise Nicholas (for “Freshwater Road” )

FICTION: Nancy Rawles (for “My Jim”)

First Finalist: David Anthony Durham (for “Pride of Carthage”)

Second Finalist: Tayari Jones (for “The Untelling”)

The Madam C.J. Walker Award went to Yao Hoke Glover III and Simba Sana, founders of Karibu Books. W. Paul Coates and Bill Cox were the individual recipients of the North Star Award. Those non-competitive awards acknowledge outstanding contributions to the world of Black books.

Meanwhile……..

While we’re talking about Black writers, thought I’d also add this article. The Sister Elder is the editor of this, the compilation of the “little magazine” she helped launch.

Have You Checked Out……….

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………..the VV article on The Source yet?

*SIGH*

I used to write for The Source‘s National Affairs section. Two very smart, very talented, strong sisters edited that part. Then Osorio became editor.

*SIGH*

Read Rolling Stone’s great cover story yet? (Its author was on “Democracy Now!”) You know, Rolling Stone is a Very White popular culture magazine (it seems to only cover Black people when they’re starving in Africa or when they have a mike or guitar in their hands in America), but, as a lifetime subscriber, I can say with some authority that it believes in more than selling CDs. Look here if you don’t believe me.

*SIGH*

And don’t get me started on the socio-political content of those other Bl—uh, I mean, “urban”  🙂 —music/popular culture magazines that represent Black IMAGES, not Black people. Meanwhile, Emerge has been dead for six years.

*SIGH*

Niggers are scared of revolution
But niggers shouldn’t be scared of revolution
Because revolution is nothing but change
And all niggers do is change

Niggers come in from work and change into pimping clothes
and hit the streets to make some quick change
Niggers change their hair from black to red to blond
and hope like hell their looks will change
Nigger kill other niggers
Just because one didn’t receive the correct change
Niggers change from men to women, from women to men
Niggers change, change, change You hear niggers say
Things are changing? Things are changing?
Yeah, things are changing
Niggers change into ‘Black’ nigger things
Black nigger things that go through all kinds of changes
The change in the day that makes them rant and rave
Black Power! Black Power!
And the change that comes over them at night, as they sigh and moan:
White thighs, ooh, white thighs
Niggers always goin’ through bullshit change
But when it comes for real change,
Niggers are scared of revolution
 

Niggers are actors, niggers are actors

Niggers act like they are in a hurry
to catch the first act of the ‘Great White Hope’
Niggers try to act like Malcolm
And when the white man doesn’t react
toward them like he did Malcolm
Niggers want to act violently
Niggers act so coooool and slick
causing white people to say:
What makes you niggers act like that?
Niggers act like you ain’t never seen nobody act before
But when it comes to acting out revolution

Niggers say: ‘I can’t dig them actions!’
Niggers are scared of revolution
 

Niggers are very untogether people
 

Niggers talk about getting high and riding around in ‘els’
Niggers should get high and ride to hell
Niggers talk about pimping
Pimping that, pimping what
Pimping yours, pimping mine
Just to be pimping, is a helluva line
  Niggers are very untogether people

Niggers talk about the mind
Talk about: My mind is stronger than yours
“I got that bitch’s mind uptight!”
Niggers don’t know a damn thing about the mind
Or they’d be right
Niggers are scared of revolution

Niggers fuck. Niggers fuck, fuck, fuck
Niggers love the word fuck
They think it’s so fuckin’ cute
They fuck you around
The first thing they say when they’re mad: ‘Fuck it’
You play a little too much with them
They say ‘Fuck you’
When it’s time to TCB,
Niggers are somewhere fucking
Try to be nice to them, they fuck over you
Niggers don’t realize while they doin’ all this fucking
They’re getting fucked around
And when they do realize it’s too late
So niggers just get fucked up
Niggers talk about fucking
Fuckin’ that, fuckin’ this, fuckin’ yours, fuckin’ my sis
Not knowing what they’re fucking for
They ain’t fucking for love and appreciation
Just fucking to be fucking.
Niggers fuck white thighs, black thighs, yellow thighs, brown thighs
Niggers fuck ankles when they run out of thighs
Niggers fuck Sally, Linda, and Sue
And if you don’t watch out
Niggers will fuck you!
Niggers would fuck ‘Fuck’ if it could be fucked
But when it comes to fucking for revolutionary causes
Niggers say ‘Fuck revolution!’
Niggers are scared of revolution


Niggers are players, niggers are players, are players
Niggers play football, baseball and basketball
while the white man cuttin’ off their balls

When the nigger’s play ain’t tight enough
to play with some black thighs,
Niggers play with white thighs
to see if they still have some play left
And when there ain’t no white thighs to play with
Niggers play with themselves
Niggers tell you they’re ready to be liberated
But when you say ‘Let’s go take our liberation’
Niggers reply: ‘I was just playin’
Niggers are playing with revolution and losing
Niggers are scared of revolution

Niggers do a lot of shootin’
Niggers shoot off at the mouth
Niggers shoot pool, niggers shoot craps
Niggers cut around the corner and shoot down the street
Niggers shoot sharp glances at white women
Niggers shoot dope into their arm
Niggers shoot guns and rifles on New Year’s Eve
A new year that is coming in
The white police will do more shooting at them
Where are niggers when the revolution needs some shots!?
Yeah, you know. Niggers are somewhere shootin’ the shit
Niggers are scared of revolution


Niggers are lovers, niggers are lovers are lovers
Niggers love to see Clark Gable make love to Marilyn Monroe
Niggers love to see Tarzan fuck all the natives
Niggers love to hear the Lone Ranger yell “Heigh Ho Silver!”
Niggers love commercials, niggers love commercials 
Oh how niggers love commercials: 
“You can take niggers out of the country, but you can’t take the country out of niggers”


 Niggers are lovers, are lovers, are lovers
Niggers loved to hear Malcolm rap
But they didn’t love Malcolm
Niggers love everything but themselves

I love niggers, I love niggers, I love niggers
Because niggers are me
And I should only love that which is me
I love niggers, I love niggers, I love niggers
I love to see niggers go through changes
Love to see niggers act
Love to see niggers make them plays and shoot the shit
But there is one thing about niggers I do not love
Niggers are scared of revolution
—“Niggers Are Scared Of Revolution” by The Last Poets

Wole Soyinka On Darfur: Abandonment = Genocide

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************ 

An excerpt from Pambazuka News.

In a recent speech at the 50th Anniversary of the 1st International Conference of Black Writers & Artists in Paris, Wole Soyinka warned against the neglect of those who remain silent against the crimes against humanity in Darfur: “As the armies of the Sudanese state mass for the final onslaught on its long determined design of race extermination, that future will stigmatise you one and all, will brand you collaborators and acccomplices if you abandon the people of Darfur to this awful fate, one that so blindingly scrawls its name across the supplicating sands and hills of Darfur— Genocide!”

Was it not here, on this same French soil, in this culture-proud nation that sometimes appears to conflate the very notion of civilization with whatever is uniquely French, that a culture warrior once took the bulldozer to a hamburger joint some years ago? His mission was to stem the tide of a neo-barbarism that, for the French, is synonymous with whatever is American. Lost on that-protector of French cultural purity was a thought that must have tickled the collective memory of former French colonials: the Macdonalisationor Disneyisation of French urban landscape was a kind of poetic justice in a reverse play of history. McDonald’s had arrived from the former colony of another European power to challenge the cultural hermeticism of a former colonizer.

The circumstances and action directe of the bulldozer response differed somewhat from the strategy embarked upon by the poet and statesman Leopold Sedar Senghor, Aime Cesaire, Leon Damas, Diop, Rene Depestre and other “cultural militants”—to adopt Senghor’s own expression—in their own time.

They were also protesting—right on the terrain of their colonizers, and as protagonists of a distant civilisation—the ascendancy of others over their own cultures and civilization. Theirs was, of course, a far-reaching protest, initiated within the enemy camp, against the lop-sided dialogue between France and her possessions, one that had turned the African mind into a mere cultural receptacle of France, indentured it to European identity and values. Thus, Negritude—by a seemingly separatist strategy, one that restated an African cultural matrix in contradistinction to the European.

Click here to read the rest of the article

Happy 40th Birthday, (Both) Black Panthers!

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I’m not just talking about the Party. That reunion happened in Oak Town over the weekend. Check out the archives here, and here’s two articles. It was good to hear a former Philadelphia Panther, Mumia Abu-Jamal, set it off with his commentary. His Op-Ed served as an appropriate and powerful open to the Pacifica broadcast. His BPP anniversary oriented interview, aired later in the program, was on-point as well. Here’s the transcript of the latter.

This photo is from a long time ago in a galaxy far, far away. Bro. Mumia, as he was known then, as Lt. of Communication for the Philadelphia branch of the BPP. He was 15 at the time. The picture was on the front page of The Sunday Philadelphia Inqurier in January 1970. It was published one month to the day of the COINTEL-PRO-led police murders of Fred Hampton and Mark Clark.

(Related asides: First, are you as excited as I am about Kathleen Cleaver’s forthcoming autobiography? Like Mumia’s forthcoming book on jailhouse lawyers, it can’t come soon enough. Second, let’s enjoy this footage for as long as we can.)

But there’s another 40th Panther birthday to celebrate: the one of the Marvel Comics superhero. Same age, believe it or not. The African warrior-king was the first Black superhero to appear in American comics.

When you have a free half-hour, you can check out this animated adaptation of the character’s first appearance—at least until it disappears. 🙂

“Prey Of The Black Panther”, Part One

“Prey Of The Black Panther,” Part Two

“Prey Of The Black Panther,” Part Three